Jacopo Ortis (1918)

Jacopo Ortis (Giuseppe Sterni, 1918) was an Italian silent film, produced by Milano Films. The title role was played by Luigi Duse. It was based on 'Le ultime lettere di Jacopo Ortis' (The Last Letters of Jacopo Ortis) by Ugo Foscolo. IPACT Duplex published a set of 8 sepia postcards.


Italian postcard by IPA CT Duplex, V. Uff. Rev. St. Terni, no. 9500. Photo: Milano Films. Luigi Duse as the title character in Jacopo Ortis (Giuseppe Sterni, 1918), no. 9500. Caption: Jacopo admires the medallion of Teresa.


Italian postcard by IPA CT Duplex, V. Uff. Rev. St. Terni, no. 9501. Photo: Milano Films. Luigi Duse as Jacopo and on the right Paola Borboni as Teresa in Jacopo Ortis (Giuseppe Sterni, 1918). Caption: Mr. T. ... presents Jacopo Count Eduardo, the fiancé of Teresa.


Italian postcard by IPA CT Duplex, V. Uff. Rev. St. Terni, no. 9502. Photo: Milano Films. Jacopo Ortis (Giuseppe Sterni, 1918). Caption: The parents of Teresa.

Always tormented by the thought of his enslaved and unhappy homeland

In the novel 'Le ultime lettere di Jacopo Ortis' (The Last Letters of Jacopo Ortis) by Ugo Foscolo, Jacopo Ortis is a university student from the Veneto province with a republican passion, whose name is on the proscription list. After witnessing the sacrifice of his homeland, he retires, sad and inconsolable, to the Euganean hills, where he lives in solitude. He spends his time reading Plutarch, writing to his friend Lorenzo Alderani and sometimes spending time with the local priest, the doctor, and other good people.

Jacopo meets Signor T., his daughters Teresa and Isabellina, and Odoardo, Teresa's fiancé, and begins to frequent their home. This is one of Jacopo's few consolations since he is always tormented by the thought of his enslaved and unhappy homeland. On a feast day he helps the peasants to transplant the pine trees on the mountain, moved and full of melancholy; another day with Teresa and his family he visits Petrarch's house in Arquà.

The days pass by and Jacopo feels his impossible love for Teresa grow ever greater. Jacopo learns from Teresa herself that she is unhappy because she does not love Odoardo, to whom her father has promised her in marriage for financial reasons, despite the opposition of her mother who therefore abandons the family.

At the beginning of December Jacopo goes to Padua, where the University has reopened. He meets the ladies of the beau monde, finds false friends, gets bored, torments himself, and, after two months, returns to Teresa. Odoardo has left and Jacopo resumes his sweet talks with Teresa and feels that only if she could marry him, could give him happiness.

But destiny has written: "the man will be unhappy" and this Jacopo repeats in tracing the story of Lauretta, an unhappy girl, in whose arms her fiancé has died and whose parents have had to flee their homeland. The days pass in contemplation of the spectacles of nature and in love for Jacopo and Teresa, who kiss for the first and only time in the entire novel. He feels that being away from her is like being in a tomb and invokes the help of divinity.

He falls ill and, to Teresa's father who visits him, reveals his love for his daughter. As soon as he can leave his bed, he writes a farewell letter to Teresa and leaves. He travels to Ferrara, Bologna, and Florence. Here he visits the tombs of the "greats" in Santa Croce. Then, always carrying Teresa's image with him and feeling increasingly unhappy and desperate, he travels to Milan where he meets Giuseppe Parini.

He would like to do something for his unhappy homeland, but Giuseppe Parini in an ardent conversation dissuades him from useless acts of audacity, stating that only in the future and with blood can the Homeland be redeemed, but whoever does so will risk in turn becoming a tyrant; so even killing the tyrant has become useless, although the people can now only hope in this.

Restless and without peace Jacopo decides to go to France, but on arrival in Nice, he repents and returns. When he learns that Teresa has married, he feels that life no longer makes sense to him. He returns to the Euganean Hills to see Teresa again, goes to Venice to embrace his mother, then to the Hills again, and here, after writing a letter to Teresa and the last one to his friend Lorenzo Alderani, he kills himself, plunging a dagger into his heart. This is followed by Lorenzo's final explanation of Jacopo's fate.


Italian postcard by IPA CT Duplex, V. Uff. Rev. St. Terni, no. 9503. Photo: Milano Films. Left, Paola Borboni as Teresa in Jacopo Ortis (Giuseppe Sterni, 1918). Caption: Mrs. T. ... separates herself from her children.


Italian postcard by IPA CT Duplex, V. Uff. Rev. St. Terni, no. 9504. Photo: Milano Films. Left, Paola Borboni as Teresa and Luigi Duse as the title character in Jacopo Ortis (Giuseppe Sterni, 1918). Caption: Jacopo in ecstasies over the sweet sound of the harp.


Italian postcard by IPA CT Duplex, V. Uff. Rev. St. Terni, no. 9505. Photo: Milano Films. Luigi Duse as the title character in Jacopo Ortis (Giuseppe Sterni, 1918). Caption: Jacopo pays a visit to a distant patrician in Padua.

Frustration about the failed Italian republic

The film Jacopo Ortis seems to follow the same plot as the novel, albeit abbreviated. It contains elements from previous Romantic dramas ending in suicide such as Goethe's 'Werther', but Foscolo's tale has a much stronger political impact, as Ortis's sentimental distress is directly connected with his frustration about the failed Italian republic.

Jacopo Ortis (Giuseppe Sterni, 1918), released amidst the First World War, may well have served the anti-Austrian Italian film propaganda of that time.

The lead actor was Luigi Duse (1857-1930), who was parented to the Duse stage actors family to which also famous stage actress Eleonora Duse belonged. During the First World War, Luigi Duse began a cinematographic activity in which he starred in many films, or played supporting parts. His last film role was in Il castello della malinconia (Augusto Genina, 1922), starring Lucy di San Germano and Angelo Ferrari. After the First World War Duse was director of Lina Casilini's stage company.

Director was Giuseppe Sterni (1883–1952), who was active from 1916, often worked with Duse, and from 1916 worked at Milano Films where he remained for years. A few years ago, his film La madre/The Mother (1917) starring Italia Vitaliani and Sterni himself was found and restored by the Eye Filmmuseum.

The leads in Jacopo Ortis were for Luigi Duse as Jacopo and for Paola Borboni as Teresa in her film debut. Other actors were Mary-Cléo Tarlarini, Angelo Giordani, Vittorio Pieri, and others. While the script was by Angelo Giordani, the cinematography was by Antonio Martini. The film received its Italian censorship visa on 1 April 1918.


Italian postcard by IPA CT Duplex, V. Uff. Rev. St. Terni, no. 9506. Photo: Milano Films. Luigi Duse as the title character in Jacopo Ortis (Giuseppe Sterni, 1918). Caption: A search in the house of Jacopo.


Italian postcard by IPA CT Duplex, V. Uff. Rev. St. Terni, no. 9507. Photo: Milano Films. Left, Luigi Duse as the title character in Jacopo Ortis (Giuseppe Sterni, 1918). Caption: Mr. T. ... asks Jacopo to forget Teresa.


Italian cover of a set of 8 cards by IPACT Duplex.

Source: Dizionario Biografico Treccani, Vittorio Martinelli (Il cinema muto italiano), and IMDb.

Paola Borboni

Paola Borboni (1900-1995) was one of the greatest Italian stage actresses of the 20th Century. From 1918 on, she played in over 80 films. She was also often heard on the radio and seen on television, but her true passion was the stage.


Italian postcard, no. 602/3. Photo: Massaglia, Torino.


Italian postcard by Ed. Vettori, Bologna, no. 1045.


Italian postcard by Ed. Vettori, Bologna, no. 381 Photo: Trevisani, Bologna.

Ever Seen A Mermaid Wearing A Coat?

Paola Borboni was born near Parma on New Year's Day 1900, as daughter of a lyrical impresario.

Paola started to act on stage at age 16. Two years later, she was already 'prima attrice' next to Romano Calò and later to Irma Gramatica.

She excelled in particular in the lighter genre, helped by her beauty and her uninhibited behaviour. When playing a mermaid in 1925, she showed her breasts, creating a scandal, but reacting: 'Ever seen a mermaid wearing a coat?'

With the years her roles became more mature and complex. In the 1930s and 1940s, she played for two seasons with Ruggero Ruggeri and in 1934 she also founded her own company. She'd play anything, from Gabriele D'Annunzio to George Bernard Shaw, but Luigi Pirandello was her favourite.

From 1918 on, Paola Borboni also played in films, starting with the silent film Jacopo Ortis/Jacob Ortis (Giuseppe Sterni, 1918), a Milano Film production based on a novel by Ugo Foscolo.

Until 1921, Borboni played in 6 more silent films, directed by Giuseppe Sterni, Giuseppe Guarino and Eugenio Perego.

After that, she exclusively focused on the stage, until the mid-1930s, when she returned with the female lead in Gennaro Righelli's sound film Lo smemorato/The Forgetful (1936), costarring Angelo Musco.

Between 1936 and 1956 her career was at its peak. She had a steady and continuous output of film performances, mainly in supporting roles as in the Tito Schipa vehicle Vivere/To Live (Guido Brignone, 1937).

She played leading parts as in the romantic comedy Ho perduto mio marito/I Have Lost My Husband (Enrico Guazzoni, 1937) with Nino Besozzi, Ricchezza senza domani/Wealth without a future (Ferdinando Maria Poggioli, 1940), and Il viaggio del signor Perrichon/The journey of Mr. Perrichon (Paolo Moffa, 1943). Mostly, however, Borboni played supporting parts in the cinema.


Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano, no. 535. Photo: Badodi, Milano.


Italian postcard, no. 602/1. Photo: Massaglia, Torino.


Italian postcard, no. 140.

A Husband 40 Years Younger Than She Was

In the postwar era, Paola Borboni played twice on stage under direction of Luchino Visconti: in Vittorio Alfieri's Oreste (1949), and in Arthur Miller's Il Crogiuolo (The Crucible) (1955).

In the 1950s and 1960s, she became famous for her monologues on stage. In these years she was also well-known for her open air theatre performances all over the country.

In the cinema she had substantial or minor parts in several classic titles of the Italian film history. She played the school principal in the comedy Il biricchino di papà/The mischievous Dad (Raffaele Matarazzo, 1943) featuring Armando Falconi, the Russian princess in Sorelle Materassi/The Sisters Materassi (Ferdinando Maria Poggioli, 1944) featuring Emma and Irma Gramatica, the actress Dejanira in La locandiera/The landlady (Luigi Chiarini, 1944), Matilde in Roma ore 11/Rome at 11 (Giuseppe De Santis, 1952), and the aunt baroness in Pietro Germi's Gelosia/Jealousy (1953).

Borboni was a charwoman in William Wyler's Roman Holiday (1953) starring Audrey Hepburn. Other roles were signora Rubini in I vitelloni (Federico Fellini, 1953), the mother of Bruno Sacchi in Terza liceo/High School (Luciano Emmer, 1954), and signora Monti in Casta diva (Carmine Gallone, 1956) starring Antonella Lualdi.

During the 1960s and 1970s, her films included L'oro di Roma/Gold of Rome (Carlo Lizzani, 1961), Arabella (Mauro Bolognini, 1967), and Per grazia ricevuta/Between Miracles (1971), directed by and starring Nino Manfredi.

From 1942 to 1946 Paola Borboni had a relationship with the Sicilian actor Salvo Randone. In 1972 the 72-years old Borboni married poet and actor Bruno Vilar, who was 40 years younger than she was. In 1978 they had a terrible car accident, which killed Vilar and crippled Borboni.

Borboni, though, continued to play in films. Her later roles included Mrs. Baldi in La cage aux folles II (Edouard Molinaro, 1980), sister Theresa in Yes, Giorgio (Franklin Shaffner, 1982), and the marchioness of Querceto in the Johnny Dorelli comedy Occhio, malocchio, prezzemolo e finocchio/Eye, evil eye, parsley and fennel (Sergio Martino, 1983).

Her final film appearance was in Blue dolphin - l'avventura continua/Blue Dolphin - The Adventure Continues (Giorgio Mosa, 1990).

While staying in a home in Varese, Paola Borboni died in 1995 because of a stroke and was buried in the family tomb in Parma. She was 95. All in all, she had played in 86 films in nine decades of cinema.


Italian postcard by G. Ballerini & Co., Firenze, no. 602/4. Photo: Massaglia, Torino.


Italian postcard by Ed. Vettori, Bologna, no. 1071. Photo: Trevisani, Bologna.


Italian postcard by Casa Editrice Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze, no. 342. Photo: Miniati, Livorno.


Italian postcard by ASER (A. Scaramaglia Ed. Roma), no. 205, early 1940s. Photo: Vaselli / Lux Film.

Sources: Wikipedia (English and Italian), and IMDb.